Woman Who Flipped Off Trump Motorcade Fired From Job

(CBS) – A female cyclist whose “one-fingered salute” to President Donald Trump’s motorcade went viral on social media has now lost her job over the incident.

Juli Briskman, an employee for government contractor Akima LLC, was reportedly fired after admitting to her bosses that she was the person who flipped off the president’s group while they left Trump’s golf course in Virginia. Briskman was traveling on her bicycle on Oct. 28 when the presidential motorcade overtook the cyclist, who proceeded to make the crude gesture captured by photographers.

The 50-year-old reportedly used the image as her profile picture on Twitter and Facebook, which led to her firing. Akima LLC says Briskman violated the firm’s social media policy for its employees.

“Basically, you cannot have ‘lewd’ or ‘obscene’ things in your social media. So they were calling flipping him off ‘obscene,’” the fired contractor told the Huffington Post.

Briskman was with the company for only six months, working in marketing and communications, before her termination. She claims that Akima officials explained that the incident could hurt their position as a government contractor if she was allowed to stay with the company.

(Credit: NICHOLAS KAMM/AFP/Getty Images)

“You can’t see her face, she is totally unidentified in that picture. But once she identified herself to her employer, they had to consider that information,” lawyer Bradley Shear told the Washington Post. “You might not get jailed for what you say, but you might not get the job you want,” the attorney who deals with social media issues added.

Briskman says she doesn’t regret the move even though she’s now looking for a new employer.